Early childhood education major gains global experience
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Voelkers presented a session during the conference titled “Making Global Connections Through Blogging”. The free weeklong online, video-streamed conference is a collaborative and world-wide community effort designed to increase opportunities for globally-connecting education activities.
Voelkers graduated December 18 from the Human Development and Family Sciences department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at Oklahoma State University, completed her primary intern teaching experience at The American School of Paris. The Bartlesville native has worked in a first grade classroom from mid-September to mid-December.
“It has always been my dream to go to France,” Voelkers said. “For it to culminate into me being able to combine two of my passions, French language and teaching young children, into one career opportunity is so exciting.”
Aspiring to teach kindergarten in a French school, after her December 2010 graduation, Voelkers added an extra semester to her education in order to obtain a minor in French.
“After Emily asked if there was a possibility to complete her experience in France, we began a year-long journey to find a school, teacher and supervisor willing to work with her.” said Linda Sheeran, Associate Professor and Early Childhood Education Program Coordinator at OSU.
Voelkers’ presentation in the November conference demonstrated that students in culturally diverse classrooms gain a sense of global community and improve their attitudes toward writing.
“I was so fortunate to participate in the conference during its inaugural year,” Voelkers said. “Everyone was so encouraging and supportive while I was presenting, and I got to do a lot of networking.”
Her project connects a second grade classroom in Stillwater, Oklahoma, to the first-grade classroom in Paris. Students in both classrooms are learning to write so that others can read and enjoy their writing. The students write about daily lives and special aspects of their lives in Paris or Stillwater. Then the writings are scanned and put into a slide show, enhanced with illustrations or photographs. The students are recorded reading their own writings. The presentation is sent to the students on the other side of the world to view and comment.
“Sometimes, I forget how special it is for me to be here,” Voelkers said. “Then someone asks about my story and they're blown away. Then I remember how rare an opportunity I've been given. It's amazing!”
In addition to teaching at the school, Voelkers took advantage of the sites and culture France, Belgium, Germany and Spain have to offer. She lived a few miles away from the school in a small community called Garches, sharing a flat with a retired teacher from the school. Her professors from OSU supervised her experience using multi-media tools such as Skype, as well as video-recording her teaching and sending it back to campus.
For more information and stories of Emily’s experiences in France, you can follow her blog at http://emilyinfrance.wordpress.com.